Monday Musings: New Releases, News, and More 9/27/21
This site is reader-supported. When you buy through links on this site I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. (Likewise, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Thanks.
____
Please share this post with your friends and don’t forget to join in on the discussion at the bottom.
New Christian Book Releases for September 2021
These are full price, brand new books I didn’t want you to miss out on.
Christian Book News
Person of Interest by J. Warner Wallace
J. Warner Wallace, cold-case detective and author of Cold Case Christianity and Forensic Faith, has just released a new book, Person of Interest. This book uncovers the truth about Jesus using the Old Testament alone and teaches you how to respond to common objections to Christianity.
In a podcast video, the author describes Person of Interest and Cold Case Christianity as a “one-two punch for the reliability of the gospel account.”
Once an atheist, J. Warner Wallace employed techniques used to solve real cold-cases to answer questions about Jesus. After becoming a follower of Christ in 1996, he eventually earned a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies from Gateway Seminary. His work as a detective has been featured on NBC’s Dateline, CourtTV, and Fox News. He has been called “of the most unique defenders of the Christian faith you will ever hear.”
You can learn more on the author’s website, coldcasechristianity.com, which is full of free articles from the author and video podcasts.
My Ramblings Musings and Discussion Topic of the Week
Tales of the Bargain Hunter
I know I’ve been slacking on my articles for this site lately but I’ve been working hard exploring the world of Christian books, following rabbit trails and chasing new authors. I’m sure you all have noticed that the site now includes links from Amazon, Christianbook.com, and Google Play. It’s been a lot of work getting used to that but I’ve gained some great insights about bargain hunting from the experience.
For instance, new releases are usually cheaper at Christianbook.com. Take The Mystery of Israel and the Middle East, a new release book listed above. At the time of this post it’s $12.99 on Amazon, $17.99 on Google Play, and $9.99 at Christianbook.com. This is a common occurrence I’m finding for brand new books. The sales also have trends. When a book is $3.99 on Amazon it may be $3.89 on Christianbook. A $1.99 book on Amazon might be $1.59 on Christianbook and it may be full price Google Play. Sometimes it’s the same price on all three retailers but it’s not common.
As an author/publisher myself, I thought there were rules about pricing. I think the small price differences are when the retailer cuts it themselves as a loss leader technique to bring in business, but I’m finding a lot of publishers don’t even bother to put their books on sale at all on Google Play and sometimes a book may be on sale just at Amazon or just at Christianbook.com. When I set out to include links from other retailers I was simply interested in giving people more choices about where to shop. I had no idea they were allowed to compete against each other for the best price. It’s been very interesting to watch and it’s taught me that (as a book hunter) I need to be open to all retailers to get the best deals. (As an author, I still wouldn’t price my book differently on various retailers as I personally think it’s just disrespectful to customers.)
One of the Bravest Things I’ve Ever Done
So, I decided to add the Google Play store to my Kindle Fire. I looked it up and found an article that directed me to download four files and open them in order, clicking “Install” with each one and suddenly my Kindle Fire opened up a whole new world to me. I was then able to download Google Play apps like Google Play Books, the Christianbook.com ereader app, the Bible tracker app I’ve been using on my Samsung tablet, and many other apps. This has been great because my favorite Bible version is downloadable as an epub file and when I uploaded it to the Google Play reader app it’s treated like a real book, with the ability to keep my place, highlight, and take notes, unlike what happens when I try to sideload it as a mobi file to my Kindle. My Samsung is also much smaller than my 10” Kindle Fire and so it’s harder on my eyes.
My Latest Project
Once all the books in the world were open to me on one device (notice, I’m purposefully leaving out Apple books,) I set out to catalog my favorites. I used to download every free book I posted to the site (for years) and now I have a Kindle library of over 11,000 books. (I still can’t believe I found tens of thousands of dollars worth of ebooks for free.) I’m sure some of you that have followed along for the last ten years can relate. I tried several book catalog apps but none of them would read all my books. I finally decided to go with Library Thing since I can’t stand GoodReads. (Sorry all you GoodReads fans.) Maybe things would be different if I weren’t both a reader and an author, but so far I really enjoy Library Thing.
As I said in my newsletter this morning, when I began cataloging all the books in my elibrary that actually looked interesting to me I found they were almost all nonfiction books. This was very surprising. Maybe it has to do with the deep-rooted reader’s guilt I spoke of in the last Monday Musings article, but my mind is free to read nonfiction and I have issues with fiction. No wonder I couldn’t find a fiction book I liked. I thought I was just too picky. (I’ve been known to be that, too.) Fiction saved me at a time when it was probably the only thing that could and I’m grateful for that, but now I think I’m going to try to find some great biographies for my next reads.
Discussion Topic of the Week
Sorry that was so long. Can you tell I’m excited to talk about Christian books right now? I’d love to hear your comments (and suggestions) on book cataloging on Library Thing, being a fiction or nonfiction only reader, being naughty and downloading the Google Play Store to your Kindle Fire, and bargain hunting for books.
And, as always, don’t be afraid to leave comments on older Monday Musings posts. The conversation is always open. Have a great week!
